cichlids for a 29 gallon

[wrs]

while the kribs are getting paired up in the 20 i realized that i olny have like 11 fish left that i own. and 1/2 of them are guppies and platties! they probly wont be alive much longer as ive had them for over 6 months and usually they dont live that much longer anymore.

then all ill have is 2 gouramis, 2 corries and the other two are the kribs. so in a 29 gallon thats barley anything. We did have a zebra for a while, but sent it back when we found out it was a zebra, originally thought orange chromides. It was a very interesting fish to watch.

im not 100 percent positive that i will ever get any cichlids for it, but decided that i will need to start my reasurch now. havent decided to either make the 29 cichlids, or the 5.5 SW yet.

i dont want to do tang cichlids though because i wouldnt be able to afford that many, especially with no return polisy at the store, even though its all fine with ammonia and all, all zero except the good n thing which i can never remeber which one it is, it is a 5 ppm, but i get nervouse that my money will be lost.

so any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[wrs]

come on you guys, you must have some ideas of what canb go in a 29 gallon tank. i dont care even if its tang cichlids, because i decided i really dont care if there is no return policy.

 

[sylvia]

Do a small malawi tank - I think you could have some yellow labs and p. acei or maybe p. saulosi or p. socolofi alone.

If you can find any, it might be interesting to get a few cynotilapia mbamba as they are smaller at 3.5".

Or do a shelly tank

I don't know - I've only just recently started thinking about a malawi cichlid tank myself but I've been researching species for a larger tank. Yellow labs would deffinately work though.

 

[freddyk]

You can do a small mbuna tank, but your options are very limited. Mbuna are very active fish and will use the entire tank, whether you give them 2 feet or 5 feet of length. A small colony of yellow labs or Pseudo. Saulosi can be squeezed in, or perhaps a few single, less aggressive specimens. Frankly, I wouldn't do a Malawi tank in this sized tank.

You can do a nice little Tang setup if you're still interested in that. Set up the tank with a nice sand substrate, leave half the tank clear and rockscape the second half. A pair of a smaller rock dwelling species like Julidochromis Transcriptis, Calvus 'Dwarf', or Caudopunctatus will nest in that part of the tank.
Distribute shells among the other side of the tank get some shell dwellers. A small colony of Multifasciatus or Similis would be nice, or a couple pairs of Brevis or Occelatus. Lots of choice here.
Then you still have all of the upper parts of this tall tank left open. Get yourself a schoal of a good, tough tetra, like Serpae, and they'll be ignored by their cichlid companions.

 

[wrs]

thanks for the ideas. ill defenetly look for the tangs cichlids. i do have tang buffer so those probebly would be3 my best choice, yet my store doesnt really have that many kinds, mostly n. brichardi.

i also do like yellow labs.

if i was to go with the tang, the rocks would have to go all the way to the top of the tank, correct?

 

[freddyk]

Most rock dwellers will stay near the bottom anyway, so there's no reason to build rocks up high unless you prefer to.

The labs have the color, but the lab tank won't have anywhere near the character of the tangs, IMO.

 

[G_Sharky]

i would also try a tang set up on that size tank. I tried a mbuna set up on my 33 gallon and ended up with 2 dead fish, plus some pseudotropheus species are really nasty espeacially in a small tank......

 

[wrs]

yeah, im also going to ask in the new world section to see what they say so that i have all my options then ill make my descision.